That just tells you how difficult it is to get here.

It speaks volumes of the kids. They’re the ones who play the games, and I’m forever indebted to this group.

When you make shots, it’s a pretty easy game.

After coming close the last two years, this is special.

Having done this 18 years, I’m realistic enough to know that you need a few breaks along the way.

We couldn’t ask for much more. We hung right with them. We took a took a good team to overtime and just didn’t get it done.

We did a nice job defensively. When you hold a team like Edgewood (ranked ninth in the state poll) to 36 points, you’re doing a good job.

It’s going to be tough to see her leave.

She’s a talented young lady and will be impossible to replace.

I’m really proud of their effort. To take the Division 1 fifth-ranked team to overtime without your starting point guard, I’m pleased with that.

It takes hard work. It takes a little luck. It takes a break here and there to get to the state tournament. There were some undefeated teams like Elkhorn that didn’t make it. It’s not...

It’s a chance to get a little accustomed to the surroundings, but it will be different with several thousand people in here on Friday afternoon. Part of it, though, is getting a little bit of...

Ellie went to the basket hard (all weekend). She was hungry. I think she wanted this state title more than anything. She did a great job.

It was a good ball game. You want to head into the tournament playing good basketball. I thought we played well tonight.

Becca has been our defensive stopper all year.

It’s pretty impressive, isn’t it?. To hold them to 33 is outstanding.

It means that I had some great players. They play the games.

I don’t think we came out ready to play. I’m not convinced having a bye is a great thing. We were close to letting things get away.

We took them out of their comfort zone. I was really happy with the way our defense played all night.

To play the way we did for two days in a row . . . things just went our way again today.

It’s going to be tough to see her go. She has been a consistent player for us for four years. She made a great impact not only on our basketball program but on our community,...

It was like Monroe North here. I thank our fans, the kids responded to (the cheering).

They just did a yeoman’s job on the inside. They were solid defensively and did not allow many easy looks inside.

Ellie’s an amazing athlete and an outstanding individual. The kids look to her because she’s got that state experience in other sports. She’s been an amazing kid at Monroe and it’s tough to see her...

Hey it’s state tournament, I am not fussy where we play.

I’m tired. I feel like I played out there tonight.

It’ll be a dogfight with them.

About 3 minutes left I took a timeout and I just told them that we have to get back to playing as a team. I think they took it to heart…they know what got us...

I am so pleased for the kids. I told the kids that this was maybe one of the more satisfying wins I think we’ve ever had. With Ellie out sick, everyone stepped up and did...

That was big. Instead of being down by 10 or 12 points, we were only down two. I thought that was the difference in the game.

Becca had a great tournament. We said before the game we wanted to take advantage of opportunities, and Becca seemed to be the one to find the openings.

I don’t see a reason for doing it. If it doesn’t add something to the game, why do it?

I know that was in the back of these kids’ minds. We talked about it when we went out tonight and reinforced it at halftime. We remembered the feeling of losing last year and we...

That was a great catch. To gather it in like that — Ellie fired that ball in there — was a big momentum swing for us.

As long as we take care of business, we can’t do anything worse than tie.

Everybody stepped up tonight. You hope to get those performances from your key players in big games.

My hat’s off to New London. They played a great game and battled hard. They really battled Ellie (Radke) hard in the post. It was one of those games where we knew it was going...

This was like a mini-tournament for us. We knew that each game was going to be bigger than the previous one if we kept winning.